By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.

VOLUME II.

I feel much pleasure in introducing this new species to you, a family of
which were shot by my sons in a deep wood, eight or ten miles from Eastport in
Maine, in the summer of 1832. The young were following their parents through
the dark and tangled recesses of their favourite places of abode busily engaged
in search of their insect prey; but their nest was not seen. Some weeks
afterwards three adult birds of the same kind were shot near Dennisville in the
same district; and, on shewing them to my young and intelligent friend THOMAS
LINCOLN, Esq. he told me that they bred in hollow logs in the woods, and seldom
if ever approached the farms. He had seen the eggs, but, considering it a
common species there, had made no notes of their number or colour; nor had he
attended to the form or materials of their nest. My drawing was made at that
place.

In winter, while at Charleston, South Carolina, I saw many of them: they
had much the same habits as in Maine, remaining in thick hedges along ditches,
in the woods, and also not far distant from plantations. I procured several
through the assistance of my friend JOHN BACHMAN, which now form part of my
large collection of skins of our birds. The notes of this species differ
considerably from those of the House Wren, to which it is nearly allied. I hope
to be more familiar with the Wood Wren before any labours are completed, in
which case I shall not fail to make you acquainted with the result of my
observations.

An egg of this bird, procured in the State of Vermont, and presented to me
by Dr. T. M. BREWER of Boston, differs from those of all our other Wrens: it
measures six-eighths of an inch in length, four and a half eighths in breadth;
its ground-colour is dull yellowish-white, blotched all over with rather large
markings of pale purplish-red, and zigzag streaks of deep blackish-brown, more
numerous around the middle than at either end.

Plumage soft, blended, slightly glossed. No bristly feathers about the
base of the beak. Wings short, broad; the first quill half the length of the
second, which is much shorter than the third; the fourth and fifth longest.
Tail rather long, broad, graduated, of twelve rounded feathers.

Bill dusky brown above, lower mandible brownish-yellow, the tip dusky.
Iris hazel. Feet flesh-colour tinged with brown. The general colour of the
upper parts is dark reddish-brown, duller, and tined with grey on the head,
indistinctly barred with dark brown; wings and tail undulatingly banded with
dark brown, the edges of the outer primaries lighter. The under parts are pale
brownish-grey, faintly barred on the fore-neck, breast, and sides, the under
tail-coverts distinctly barred.

This species is most intimately allied to the House Wren, from which it can
hardly be distinguished in description, the colours being nearly the same in
both. The present species, however, is considerably larger, wants the light
coloured line over the eye which is conspicuous in the House Wren, and has the
tail much more graduated.